United under-10s produce 'Best' of the season

Lee O'Brien opened the scoring early on and Joshua Galloway finished well soon after to make it two.

Not to be outdone O'Brien then volleyed home his second and United's third.

St Andrews came back into the game with two well taken goals as United lost their way for a time.

Into the second half and the under 10's produced some marvellous football to finally pull away from their opponents. Mark Cochrane (2) and Sean Elliott (2) finished brilliantly as did Galloway who completed a superb hat trick.

LISBURN INVITATIONAL YOUTH LEAGUE

United U-11 6, Shankill Juniors U-11 1: United opened the scoring from a free kick deep in the Shankill half, Ronan Kelly whipped the ball in and Jordan Hassan hit the ball home to give Ballymena the lead, but four minutes later, Shankill equalised.

Then on the stroke of half time Hassan got his second to give United a 2-1 lead at the break.

Ballymena started the second half on the front foot and went 3-1 up when Sam Armstrong slid the ball through and Hassan slotted home.

United began to dominate and on 49 minutes, Hassan got his fourth with a great solo effort, five mimutes later it was that wee man Jordan again with his fifth to make it 5-1. Calvin Purse then got his name on the score sheet to make the final score 6-1 to the Ballymena side.

United U-12 0, Portadown U-12 2: Ballymena put in a sterling performance on Saturday against second place Portadown and were unlucky to go down 2-0.

Ten minutes from time Portadown took advantage of a foul that went unpunished and went on to score.

The Wee Sky Blues went for broke and it almost paid off when captain Michael Hagan shot over from a difficult angle.

The break down of another Ballymena attack three minutes into injury time gave Portadown the opportunity to break and score despite the best efforts of Niall Johnston and Shane Gibson.

United U-16 2, Banbridge Town U-16 0: A dominant Ballymena took the lead in the second minute through a Jay Hamilton free kick.

Ten minutes into the second half Archie Quinn doubled the lead with a spectacular strike from 25 yards which ended up in the top corner.

United U-17 3, Lisburn Youth U-17 5: Ballymena took the lead in this back and forward game through Billy Speers before being pegged back by Lisburn Youth.

Eoin Gillan's headed goal from a corner made it 2-1 before Lisburn drew level again but on the stroke of half-time Gillan grabbed his second to give the Sky Blues a 3-2 half-time lead.

A strong second half performance from Lisburn saw them score three unanswered goals to take the three points.

IFA YOUTH LEAGUE

United III 1, Crusaders III 0: Ballymena dominated most of the first half of this league cup match but couldn't get the opening goal until the second period, when Niel Lowry chested down for Blaine McKenna to fire the ball home.

Ballymena at home to Linfield Rangers this Saturday (2pm).